Crock-Pot Queso

On Friday night, some SLIS girls and I got together for some margaritas at Meredith's, and I found it the perfect excuse to try to make homemade queso.  I made a double batch to have some with and some without ground beef for the vegetarians in the group.
I brought the leftovers to a crawfish boil Saturday afternoon, and the rest was gone.

Crock-Pot Queso 

adapted from Two Peas and their Pod

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients: 
10 oz white American cheese (I got it sliced at the grocery store deli, then cut the stack of slices into 3x3 smaller squares)
6 oz Pepper Jack (sliced and cut 3x3, but if the deli will shred it for you, that will decrease cook time)
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 medium jalapeño, diced
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon onion flakes 
1 generous tablespoon dried cilantro 
1 roma tomato, seeds removed and diced 
1/2 lb. browned ground beef (optional)

Directions: 
1. Pour a small amount of extra virgin olive oil into a saucepan over medium heat.  Cook the jalapeño and bell pepper until softened.  
2. Brown ground beef in a pan. Set aside. 
3. Cut cheese slices into smaller pieces.  I stacked the slices and cut the slices into 9 smaller squares each.  
4. Combine the jalapeño, bell pepper, cheese, milk, and onion into the Crock-Pot on high.  Let cook for 45 minutes or until the queso is at the consistency you like, stirring occasionally.  
5. After cheese is melted, stir in cilantro and tomato.  
6. Just before serving, stir in ground beef.  Turn Crock-Pot to low to keep warm.  If the queso gets too thin, turn Crock-Pot off completely and it will thicken back up.  
7. Serve with chips.  

Crawfish Boil on Saturday

Thanks Ashlyn for the pictures from Saturday! 

$100 giveaway

Chocolate Covered Katie is having a giveaway. Enter here.  She is the great lady that gave me the recipe for these Not Guilty Chocolate Chip Cookies.

via Chocolate Covered Katie

"Not Guilty" Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was in the mood for some chocolate chip cookies the other night and began looking up recipes.  One by a very well-known lady who made some bad decisions about stock trades required two sticks of butter.  So I did a search of Chocolate Covered Katie's blog for a more low-cal option and this is what I found: 

"Not Guilty" Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've made them 3 times since I discovered the recipe not too long ago. 

• 1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup flour (Katie used 70g oat flour. I used all-purpose.)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda (not baking powder)
• 2T to 1/3 cup chocolate chips (I love chocolate, so I went 1/3 cup)
• 2T brown sugar 
• 2T white sugar (I used Splenda) 
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1T vegetable oil 
• 1-3T nondairy milk, as needed (I used skim milk and they turned out great!) 

Bake at 375 for 7 minutes. The batch is the perfect size. Check out the original post for more baking details.  And check Katie's blog for all sorts of healthy sweet treats! 

Never to be seen again...

I recently read "25 Foods You'll Never Be Able to Eat Again."  The ones on the list I'll miss the most (mainly because they remind me of when I was a kid)

Crispy M&M's

Sqeez-Its

It reminded me of an email I got from my dad with the subject line "Ads we'll never see again."  Dad is a big fan of the chain emails (which I never forward to 10 people, so I'm lucky I haven't died or been struck by lightning yet), but sometimes he sends some good ones.  The retro ads it included are below. Oh, how times have changed!

Sophisticated Strawberries

Last week I had two potlucks at school and turned to Pinterest for recipe inspiration for both.  For one class I made these "Easy and Quick" Oreo Balls.  They were pretty quick, but easy? It would have been easier if I would have had that electric mixer that is currently wrapped under the tree, but mixing these by hand was pretty sticky.  Literally . Oreo/cream cheese mix all over my fingertips.  And lots. of. stirring.
The hardest part to me was not making marks in the dipping chocolate that covered the Oreo balls while I was taking them out of the pot of white chocolate.  These strawberries are my inspiration to strive towards perfection the next time I use dipping chocolate:

       

       Bride and Groom strawberries via Lux Bridal

New Year's Eve strawberries via Catherine Victoria

Football strawberries via Shari's Berries

Santa strawberries via The Inspired Room